We need another thief

The party of adventurers lost yet another thief in a recent session. This is the 4th thief to die or leave the group since they began. This one was pretty low level compared to the player characters (level 5 compared to levels 12-14), but I feel the players have reached a rarified level of skill. They should not be able to recruit a high-level thief on a street corner. Jon Wallis was from a Small Niche Games supplement. For now, the group will make do with the find traps spell employed by the group's NPC cleric.

Session 161: Quest for the Shrine of St. Aleena

Lakima (human magic user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier), Domago (human cleric NPC), Ian of Darkhollow (human cavalier NPC), Jon Wallus (human thief, NPC), Valen of Edgerton (human fighter NPC).

A cohort of the Company of the Black Dragon has entered the Shrine of St. Aleena, which has been overrun by evil creatures and abandoned by clerics for two years. They killed a nest of harpies and a giant serpent. Now they search for St. Aleena’s true tomb, which they understand is in danger.

Searching about the few rooms of the Shrine, Aldus is attacked by a corrupt ghoul who leaps onto him from a table when he enters a room. Aldus kills the ghoul quickly. Domago checks the corpse and is shocked to learn that it belongs to one of the former brother clerics of the shrine.

They find a chamber with a stair that leads up to the statue of St. Aleena on the plateau, and they see a crypt with one opened coffin that they decide not to investigate. Later, they find a well room with a collapsed wall. Here, they are attacked by a deadly roper. The creature attacks with surprise as its tough hide resembles the surrounding rock. Luna, Jon, Aldus, Ian, and Domago are all wrapped up in stone tentacles and dragged toward the enormous maw of the creature. Aldus and Domago are able to break free; but Jon Wallis is pulled into the mouth and is consumed. Lakima summons an earth elemental to fight the creature. When the beast is finally killed, everyone is freed, but Domago finds there is not enough left of Jon to cast raise dead.

Death of the Thief

Unable to find the tomb of St. Aleena, Lakima tries using the Arrow of Direction, but it gives a confused answer – pointing at three statues of the Saint.

“Maybe they chopped up her body and put it in the statues,” Lakima jokes. Domago is not amused by the joke.

Searching the room full of coffins, the group is attacked by four more corrupt ghouls. Domago turns the ghouls, forcing them back into their coffins, but not before Valen and Luna are paralyzed.

“Quick, drag them from the room,” Lakima shouts. Aldus carries Valen, and Ian carries Luna clear of the room, and all of the doors are shut. Lakima then opens the door and tosses in a delayed blast fireball. Moments later, there is a loud “whomp” noise, and some smoke drifts out from under the door. They re-enter the room and find everything destroyed.

During the 1 hour wait for Luna and Valen to recover from the paralysation. The group discuss what to do. Lakima suggests Domago pray to St. Aleena in the prayer circle in the center of the meditation chamber. He has spotted a similar circle on the roof of the chamber. When Domago prays, a circular shaft opens in the ceiling, and the center of the floor starts to rise toward it. Everyone jumps on the stone platform, and it rises into another chamber. They see two enormous doors flanked by stone pillars carved to resemble holy knights. The doors appear to have held against an attack. The area in front of the door is blackened and pitted. Veins of evil corruption snake through the floor.

“Try the doors,” Lakina says and points while speaking to Eathwund and Aldus.

Eathwund tries one door using his giant strength and finds it will not budge. Aldus tries the other door and it swings open easily.

“Easy,” says Aldus.

At that moment, there is a flash of flame, and an eight-foot-tall demon appears, “At Last,” it yells with glee and flies over the stunned warriors and into the chamber beyond. There, they see a glass-covered tomb with a well-preserved woman lying under the glass. The demon proceeds to beat on the glass. Lakima tries to charm the demon using his pendant of demon summoning, but it fails. Aldus and Eathwund charge the demon and attack. Ian brings up the rear while Valen scurries and hides. Domago casts dispel evil on the demon, but it also fails.

Angered by their attacks, the demon blasts Aldus with a lightning bolt, hurling the knight into the chamber wall. Domago charges the demon and strikes it with the Mace of St. Aleena, and Eathwund finishes it with his sword. The demon explodes as it is vanquished, spraying Eathwund, Domago, Ian, and Aldus with black ichor.

As the screams of horror come to an end, a vision of St. Aleena appears before the assembled heroes. St. Aleena thanks the heroes for clearing her resting place. She tells them that the demon was known as the "spawn of the infamous one," the same infamous one that ended her mortal life. She beseeches the heroes to travel to Irllendom to stop the latest plans of the Infamous One to overthrow the Duke of Valnwall. These plans involve using the Witch of Blackmarsh to attack Irllendom.

St. Aleena then vanishes. Domago, still cleaning black ichor off his clothes, tells the group that his path is clear.

“Can’t we go home first?” Lakima says with a sigh.

“My path is clear. I will head to Irllendom as soon as I tell the church elders that the shrine is safe to enter again. Of course, I hope my brave companions will come with,” Domago says.

Looking at his companions and seeing their resolve, Lakima nods and agrees to continue to the Earldom of Solene in the north.

Domago is the first to notice that he has been marked by the demon's death. A black tendril, or tattoo, circles his left wrist. He discovers he cannot remove it, no matter how hard he scrubs at it. The other adventurers, splattered with demon blood, also discover they have been demon-marked.

“I think I can deal with that,” Lakima says. He casts the remove curse spell, and the mark vanishes from Domago’s arm. Domago then casts a remove curse of his own on Aldus, removing the mark on him.

“That is a relief,” Domago says, “I feel the Infamous one could use the mark to track us.”

The other four are similarly freed of the mark over the next few days as the Company of the Black Dragon heads first to Peake's Crossing (where they drop off Valen) and then to the northwest to Solene and Irllendom, its capital. 

The trip on the flying ship Cloudstealer takes only 3 days. They fly over the Mountains of Old, the vast Serhu woods, and come to Irllendom. The capital is much smaller than Edgerton, and the town has no walls. Most of the buildings are single stories and are made of wood. Only the Keep has strong stone walls. The Cloudstealer sets down in the green in front of the keep, causing quite a stir. A crowd gathers, and eventually, a group of knights rides out from the Keep. One knight calls out to them and asks them to come aboard.

They meet Morganne, the captain of the guard. She asks about their business and is surprised when Lakima boldly states that they have come to put an end to the Witch of Blackmarsh. Morganne tells them that she has heard of the witch, but she is not considered much of a threat. She keeps to herself in the marsh. Of more significant threat is the black dragon Stygoth. Stygoth rules the Blackmarsh and allows no one to pass freely through it. To make matters worse Stygoth has been coming further south recently and attacking without reason. Usually, Stygoth would take the occasional cow, but recently, it has been destroying entire farmsteads. Morganne is a little disturbed to see the openly displayed symbol of the Company of the Black Dragon on their sail, tabards, and pennants. But Lakima assures her that they have killed many black dragons in their time.

“In that case, Lady Tyra has offered a bounty of 6,000 gold coins for the head of Stygoth,” Morganne says, “No one has been able to collect it yet.”

Lakima asks to meet Lady Tyra, ruler of Solene, and Morganne says she can arrange it later that night. She asks them to “clean up and make themselves presentable” for dinner. Morganne leaves, and the adventurers take the opportunity to stretch their legs and wander the town. Eventually, they wind up at the Inn of the Wobbly Wheel. Here, they meet some Vanhurr Elves from the West. Lakima tells them about his connection to the Vyalia elves of the King's Wood and his journey to the fey lands. They also hear a few more rumors. Rumors of the Mountain King, a ruk chieftain who is a danger to Solene.

That evening, they head to the Keep and enjoy a meal with Lady Tyra and her two grown children. Lady Tyra asks about their exploits. She seems well-informed and has heard of a number of their stories. She exchanges more information with them about the Blackmarsh and tells a scribe to make them a map showing the location of the Demon Rock, where Stygoth and possibly the Witch are said to reside.

The next day, the group boards their ship and heads north over farmlands. After two hours, they come to the edge of the Blackmarsh. The marshlands are covered with a thick fog, and they are forced to raise the ship above the fog to see where they are going. Soon, they lose complete sight of the marshes below. Lakima uses the Arrow of Direction repeatedly to point them toward Demon Rock. When the Arrow begins to point down, they lower the ship to just above the marsh. Back down in the fog, they can barely see 20 feet in any direction.

Then, they hear the sounds of battle in the fog. Screams, both animal and humanoid, come from all directions in the fog. A horse breaks into view, its eyes wild with fear, and a humanoid corpse dangling in the saddle. The horse runs right under the ship and off into the marshes.

The group decides to climb down from the ship to the ground. Advancing carefully through the swamp, they find the mangled corpses of a dozen orcs. Four smashed wagons lie overturned or half-drowned in bogs. Deep furrows are cut into the ground by whatever attacked them.

“Back on the ship, hurry!” Lakima shouts.

Back onboard, Lakima slowly guides the ship up to a height of 20 feet and then continues in the direction of Demon Rock (as indicated by the arrow). They hear a shrill cry in the fog and the sound of flapping wings. Then the ship comes over a group of five orcs on an island in the marsh. Their swords are drawn, and the orcs stand back-to-back, trembling in fear. A black dragon appears, flying out of the mists, and attacks the orcs.

“Maybe we should let this black dragon be,” Lakima shouts, “He seems to be killing orcs.”

Once he says that the dragon turns and flies toward the Cloudstealer, with a whistling shriek it cries a challenge at the ship and then smashes into the main mast. The mast is knocked overboard with much of the rigging.

“That’s done it,” Lakima says, “Eathwund! Man, the ballista.”

The dragon swings back and flaps its wings right off the ship's beam, its claws dig into the rail, and it breathes a yellow-brown stinking gas over the ship. Everyone breathes in the noxious fumes, coughs, and chokes. Seeing the black dragon up close, they see that its head is little more than a skull, with red orbs in the empty eye sockets. Bones poke out of its sides where scales are missing, and its wings are tattered and torn.

Stygoth

Lakima casts a lightning bolt at the dragon, but it appears to have no effect. Aldus then hacks into its side with his sword, Death Dealer. He opens a gaping wound, and black rot and fluid pores out. The dragon cries out again and then flies off, disappearing in the fog.

“An undead dragon!” Lakima says in wonder.

“Rock ahead!” yells Cowan, the lookout on the bow of the Cloudstealer. They all see a wall of gray stone rearing up before them. Lakima brings the Cloudstealer to a halt just before the cliff face.

“I believe this is Demon Rock!” Lakima says.

The group organizes their gear and climbs down rope ladders. Cowan and Dagmar, the crew, stay on board. They barely touch the ground when black-scales lizardmen attack them from their hiding places in the bogs. Aldus summons the berserkers with his horn of Valhalla, and they kill the lizardmen. An entrance to the rock is found nearby, but they find that the entrance has collapsed under tons of rock. Returning to the ship, they rise above the rock and look for another entrance. Guiding by lizardman tracks in the mud, they find another, simpler cave entrance.

Entering here, they find a flooded cave and are attacked by an enormous crocodile. While fighting the crocodile, more lizardmen attack the group. All are eventually killed. To cross the deep pool, Lakima casts the Luminous Bridge. But this only leads to another exit to the marshes. They realize that the entrance deeper into the rock is flooded.